You're More Than a Covert Dream
by VanishRain
Summary: She used to be his dream incarnate, but now Brennan is left wondering if she will just be the one who got away
1. I Remember the Night When I Loved You

_**Author note: This story is going to be a bit different then my others. The next chapter will show you why. I know this set-up can seem a bit daunting, but things sometimes are never as they appear.**_

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"Dr. Brennan…" An eager, young freshman tensed as he slowly walked toward the podium, "I was just wondering… maybe if you could…" The young man fumbled as his eyes locked with the stoic figure before him. He hadn't been told she would look so graceful and... broken.

He had been waiting weeks for his task. The perfect chance to see the real woman behind the eloquent, flowery words that everyone on campus could recite by heart. Words that had all but sizzle and faded with time, leaving this once world-renown anthropologist and best-selling author to be more than a cliff note. And that is where this woman lain, in the cliff notes of life and love. Lost in a mask she so delicately hid from everyone; everyone except the somehow once familiar brown eyes now boring into the depths of her soul.

"Mr. Simpson," a woman with slightly aging features barked but her voice quickly softened as his soft, reassuring brown eyes drilled into hers, "I don't have all day. If have questions about the exam and wish that we…"

"Okay… well… it's not that." The young man blurted but soon gained his composure, "The dedication in your latest novel… I was just wondering…. Why there is no dedication. Just a blank page and a…"

Brennan froze, trying to keep the bile from rising up. How had this young man found her kryptonite so easily? For years she had been able to easily pacify the masses with steamy sex scenes and cutting edge forensics but this boy, this man found that not enough. He was going in for the kill. Her soul was already destroyed, what more could he take from the washed up professor? Her heart had already belonged to another. She had nothing left.

"Dr. Brennan…" The young man snapped, glancing down at the book in his hands then back up, "A drawing is not a dedication. It… it is an art project! A dedication has words, Dr. Brennan, letters and words."

"Oh." The utterance slipped out as she slowly shook, wave after wave of faded memories battered her fragile soul. She hadn't even thought anyone read those anymore. It had been years since anyone had even asked about the man whose loving qualities seemed to increasingly fill her dedication page that was… until that night. "Him." She subconsciously growled. "His stupid, heart palpitation causing…"

"Him?" He quickly quipped, "You mean Special Agent Seeley Booth… you're partner and your…"

"Former partner." Brennan mumbled as she clenched the flat surface before her, trying to keep the world around her from falling off its axis. "I no longer work as an FBI liaison."

"A work partner is only one kind of partner." The young man smiled, sliding the book in his hands across the podium, "But I am sure you know that."

Glaring down at her reflection, Brennan couldn't help but notice the void that seemed to radiate the small five by eight inch square. A dark ghost that seemed to haunt her every waking second.

"Mr. Simpson you forgot…" Brennan began to speak but suddenly stopped as her eyes scanned before her.

As quickly as the young man came he had disappeared into the void of the night, leaving Brennan alone with the glaring void she had become. Slowly pulling back the front cover, Brennan gasped at the neat writing scrawled across the dedication page.

'I remember.'

It couldn't be, it just couldn't. It had been ten years. How could he still remember that night? The night everything snapped and she stopped falling in and out of love.

"I'll always love you…" Brennan whispered as the anguish fell over her heart and her world fell black.

"I know." The shadows in the dark auditorium whispered before slipping into the night, "I couldn't stop if I tried."


	2. Silence, My One Defense

"Come on, Temp." The woman barricading Brennan's office door briefly smiled, "A little dancing, a few drinks… maybe even a phone number. You're a grown woman with needs, manly, hunky needs. What harm could it cause?"

But the truth was the damage had already been done. Six years of teasing and taunting fate had catapulted this once strong, independent woman to the life of a hermit stuck in the fantasy of what once was. It wasn't that she hadn't tried to move on, but the fleeting sights and smells of a man sent from the stars slowly drew her heart back in night after night. It had been one year, six months and forty two days since she had left the only life she had ever known, the only love she had ever had; yet the emptiness in his eyes had spoken more than a piece of paper ever could.

One moment in time had ripped all shreds of decency from her, leaving a void with its deadly kiss. A void that could only be filled by only one man, a man who had long since decided to move on to bigger and better things. Yet as days turned into months, Brennan could have sworn every morning she could still taste him on her lips, feel him on her skin and above all else hear her once given heart calling her back to the only life that had made her complete but that was her past. A past she just had to forget. There was no reason for dwelling in the fact he could not love her anyway, not here, not now, not the person she had slowly become.

Yet the sights and smells of her one true love still battered her at every turn, making every day a test of her will to survive. She had to leave; she could see it in every tortured gaze and brief, fading smile that fell before her. Just her presence was enough to send that wreck of a man over the edge. Maybe this was the price she would have to pay for the all the sleepless nights she had caused, never being able to leave what would have been. Maybe the death of her soul was what it would take to set this man free.

"Maybe next time, Juliet." Brennan's eyes flicked up from the stack of papers before her, but soon fell as the slightest hint of emotion flickered across her blue orbs. Memories of time when no would have never danced across her lips barraged her naked core and shook her senses back to reality. She was no longer that woman that played nightly in her nightmares, a grave mistake she would have to take to her death. "It has been a long week. I really am just looking forward to going home and catching up on these tests. These tests can't grade themselves, you know." She smiled once before the plastered smile soon fell.

"But Temp…" The woman softly pleaded, "It's been months since you left this dingy office. There are not even any windows in here! Those stupid lamps cannot be healthy." Juliet flicked the dusty lamp shade as she tried to rationalize with the woman, but even that was not enough anymore. Her true love had drowned in a sea of her heartbreak and devotion and not one damn rationalization could save her from the haunting truth shooting through her gaze.

And with that familiar and determined Brennan glare barreling down on her, Juliet knew. It was more than just a dance, the woman before her was slowly dying of heartbreak. Day in and out she desperately clung to the hope that one day the floodgates would open and all would lay bare. But the impenetrable force that was her best friend had never even shown signs of cracking. Whatever had sent this radiating woman into a spiral had to be earth shattering but Juliet was willing to wait out the storm. How long could it take for her to open up anyway, a few more months? She was human after all.

"Fine. Be that way." Juliet giggled as she bounded off the doorframe, "But when I find the man of my dreams and your left to live your life strapped to that desk don't tell me I didn't warn you, Temperance!"

Silence once more fell on the small office and that is exactly how Brennan liked it. Alone with her thoughts she could pretend things had not unfolded as they had. All around her was just a horrible nightmare and all she had to do was wake up. He still loved her, she still loved him and they were living their life happily ever after. Just as it should be. Not this putrid wreck she had become, just trying to survive with an ounce of dignity still intact.

Leaning down over the mounting paperwork Brennan couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips. After all these years, the joy she found in the solitude of the silence was one she could always count on. Alone with a pen and her thoughts, she was able to forget about the way her life had finally unfolded and focus solely on one of her favorite passions, education.

At least with her work before her she could focus on something other than her degrading love life. A life lost long ago was not something she could change. And as she hummed against the lightly playing music filtering through her office a small sense of relief filtered through her soul. Little did she know how each bar and cord was piercing deep within her soul and bringing back to life what was once lost in the abyss of life.

As the music roared up and caught her attention Brennan couldn't help but smile as a frantic gaze glazed over her sparkling blues. She was sure she must have been hearing things but as a once familiar song slowly enveloped the room, she found she was clearly mistaken. There was music; real, passionate music fluttering like the wings of an angel across her broken heart. Brennan's panicked eyes darted across the dimly lit room, trying to find the logical rational for the increasingly louder music beating in sync with her frantic breathing only to find nothing but shadows and dust. It had been hours since everyone else had left for the weekend, but as the guitar riffs became one with her heartbeat Brennan knew.

It was their song.

And just like her, he could never forget.


End file.
